Managing Telework: Perspectives from Human Resource Management and Work Psychology

Citation

Herin, M. (2001), "Managing Telework: Perspectives from Human Resource Management and Work Psychology", Personnel Review, Vol. 30 No. 5, pp. 602-607. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr.2001.30.5.602.1

Teleworking is growing at a rapid pace and it is timely for a book to focus specifically on the issues facing this sector. The text aims to provide a basis for informed management practice in this area, thereby offering practitioners and students a strong foundation of knowledge and theory to give a clear and comprehensive view of teleworking and how it can be managed.

The text consists of 17 chapters, each of which examines teleworking from different management perspectives. Each chapter is well structured, defining the terminology and jargon used, clarifying the purpose of the chapter, and finishing with a conclusion or concluding comments. This is an extremely useful navigational style, acting as a guide for the reader.

The book commences with a chapter which outlines the structure and content of the book. This is useful in that it outlines the key issues for management in telework and provides a definition of some of the key terms such as IT communications and relationships. It highlights three major components of managing teleworkers: links with the internal and external environments; internal systems; the individual and other issues and how they can be combined to produce quality outputs.

The core elements of management are identified and then expanded in later chapters of the book. The main elements comprise the key structural and cultural issues affecting the management of teleworkers, communications, decision making, different personalities, job characteristics, teleworking practices and the implications for the health and motivation of individuals as well as reference to the psychological contract. The main Human Resource Management elements are also considered: for example, selection, performance management, training and development and change management skills.

Chapter two reminds the reader that teleworking is still relatively new and places teleworking in a national context, highlighting the environmental issues that managers need to consider. There is a broader reference which provides a European context and enables comparison of employment figures across countries. This chapter helps to evaluate the viability of transfer of practices and the amount of adaptation that may be required.

Chapter three examines the relationship between organisational structures and teleworking, and those that are likely to be most successful in supporting teleworking. It refers to some of the issues that have affected organisational structure such as downsizing, delayering, process re‐engineering, core and periphery working. It focuses on team based structures, their co‐ordination and virtual teams and discusses how teleworking has enabled new organisational structures, stating, however, that at the same time it is an established form of work in existing organisations.

Chapter four explores organisational culture and the influence it may have on teleworking, the business goals and the type of employees involved in achieving these goals. It discusses the control aspect in cultures and how this impacts on teleworking, manifesting itself in management styles, office systems and the way technology is used. The chapter contains an excellent section on reasons why organisations use teleworking and the typical cultures found and explains the relationship between different types of teleworking and organisational culture. This chapter presents the results of recent studies, and full references are provided.

Chapter five examines socialising teleworkers into the organisation and ways to increase levels of person‐organisation fit, i.e. sharing the same values. It refers to some of the complexities of socialisation, and suggests a pragmatic approach to improve the likelihood of socialisation during the recruitment and selection process, including comprehensive examples of person‐organisation fit interview questions. The chapter concludes with a summary of recommendations for management practice.

Chapter six looks at the issues of communication and collaboration at a distance. The material discussed in this chapter comes from an 18‐month examination of work practices in a distributed design and manufacture centre, the purpose of which is to understand the role of teleworking technologies, in particular “media spaces”, or forms of real time video connections between distributed workgroups. The benefits of mobile link (MTV) and fixed link (XTV) video conferencing technology are summarised, and the chapter highlights the need to understand how users develop and adapt technology within their specific work situations.

Chapter seven examines personality and telework. It looks at different approaches to classifying individuals according to their preferences, and also to research that has found that certain occupations appear to attract certain psychological types. It explores aspects of personality and applies the predicted compatibility, or otherwise, to dimensions of teleworking.

Chapter eight looks at the job features associated with the psychological wellbeing of teleworkers. It also highlights the fact that, because teleworkers share remoteness from other organisational members, teleworking can itself influence job features. A summary is presented of some preventive strategies for maintaining desirable job features, but the chapter emphasises that an awareness of the issues in totality is what is important.

Chapter nine explores the home/work interface and raises the main issues which must be considered, such as face‐to‐face communication, monitoring of workers, social events to motivate and influence workers, flexible work hours and physical conditions. For homeworkers, there is the potential for disruption by family members, distraction by domestic or leisure options, and yet, despite these issues, the chapter presents evidence that homeworkers are often more satisfied and more productive than office workers. The chapter ends with some practical suggestions for managers and workers which could be used to alleviate any potential difficulties.

Chapter ten looks at teleworking and the psychological contract, the set of reciprocal expectations. It examines the different types of psychological contract for teleworkers and the management issues surrounding this very complex topic.

Chapter 11 investigates management style and the extent to which managing teleworkers requires a different approach from managing other workers. The chapter begins by examining the main management functions and roles and then goes on to look at the need for a “new” style when managing teleworkers, making reference to evidence from NCR and Nortel. This is useful, as it highlights the importance of a management approach that is consistent with the organisation’s goals and culture.

Chapter 12 looks at a systematic approach to selection for telework. It comprehensively considers the main variables in teleworker selection, suggesting that these should work harmoniously in pursuit of business goals. An invaluable approach to the selection of teleworkers.

Chapter 13 identifies the characteristics of organisational learning, barriers to successful learning from an individual, managerial and organisational perspective, and then presents some of the strategies for facilitating learning in organisations with teleworkers. Reference is made to well‐known and well‐regarded frameworks and the chapter succeeds in highlighting the issue that building organisational capabilities in learning is a key task.

Chapter 14 focuses on the training and development of teleworkers. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of various media for training and development and a case study is offered to demonstrate the development, implementation and evaluation of an initiative to meet the training and development needs of a group of teleworkers. This concludes that training for online teleworkers should be provided online, hence using the very medium that they will use in their work.

Chapter 15 explores the performance management and compensation issues for those involved in managing teleworkers. It uses the perspective offered by the “principal agent theory”, which looks at work agreement between the managers (the principals) and the employees (the agents) and the management and assessment of teleworkers. It suggests various methods of managing the performance of teleworkers, and states that establishing a series of parameters which frame the working relationship can help make the task a little easier.

Chapter 16 looks at preparing people and organisations for teleworking by examining the pressures of the environment in which we now work, for example, increased competition, resource constraints, more advanced technology, downsizing and outsourcing and creating lean structures to reduce costs and improve quality. It highlights the key issues and challenges and the implications for managers and professionals, leaving the reader in no doubt that teleworkers need a very different set of skills and competencies from their colleagues in more traditional roles and functions.

The final chapter is entitled “Prospects and perspectives” and states that teleworking is the subject of great speculation in both the media and the academic press. It summarises the main warnings against teleworking and then positions teleworking in its environment, reminding readers that the book outlines many ways in which the effective management of teleworkers can be achieved, referring back where necessary to the relevant chapters.

The book is well referenced throughout, provides clarification of key terms and consolidates the empirical evidence available, which is useful for practitioners and academics alike. It is an excellent, thoughtful and practical book, which summarises the key issues and related research in the field of teleworking, and presents the material in an informed manner.